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Thursday, April 29

Lollipop Tilda found a new home (in previous post) which left me with a card and a gap. Realised the sitting Tilda that I already have faces the right way so I coloured her up and gave her a Christmassy look.

The Sleigh is an Alota design and the papers are Anna Griffin. I've made this with Just Magnolia #52 and Winter Wonderland in mind both of which have an open theme. However, I think both probably have new themes today, so I'll just have to make another one.

How much is a Greek urn? Or should it be How much is a Greek, Ern? I never did get that joke.

Any crafting time available yesterday afternoon was taken up by the creation of an ancient Greek costume for the Dinky Diva. I think the correct name is 'chiton', which must be Greek for 'old bed sheet tied on with a bit of rope'.

She has little plaits in here hair that look a bit Norse but it will do and she managed to walk to school in it this morning without it falling apart so hopefully it will last the day.

Yesterday Branston and I went to a garden centre with my mum and sister. The main reason was for mum to spend some vouchers she'd been hoarding the pickle and I just went along for the ride. He trotted around happily saying 'garden, garden' and screamed the place down when it was time to leave.

He was particularly enamoured with a semi-formal area that was in the process of being completed. It had low hedges in a pattern and a central arbour that you could escape up - like this.........

Wednesday, April 28

Yes it's Wednesday again which means hoards of nosey people descend on Julia's blog to have a butchers at the crafty desks of like minded individuals.

Mine's changed only a little from last week.

The frame I'm decorating had reached the 1st stage with a new covering, there's a wheel of beads that came free with a magazine and a packet of brads that I'm saving for something. Basically a lot of stuff that needs putting away. And I really think I need to sort out a new box for my completed projects.

I've managed to make a bracelet to go with my name tag for Scrap-a-mia.

I really like the feel of it and haven't stopped wearing it since I put it together. The tubing comes on lots of colours so I think i will get some more and make them to wear as a set.

Tuesday, April 27

Just finishing off my DT work for May's By The Cute And Girly. Of course the big reveal on that won't be until Saturday.

Sunday saw the weather hold off on us until we were all packed up and home, which was just perfectly timed. Had a great, but tiring, afternoon with different groups of Scouts and Guides representing dozens of different countries with stalls, flags and costumes. No photos I'm afraid as they are just too full of lots of children I don't know!

Just time to tell you about Rach's blog giveaway which ends on 2 May. There's a fab prize of a pack of Sir Tim's papers and Hanglar Stanglar stamps - but you can't win cos I want to!!

Sunday, April 25

I've finished one of the projects I vowed to get done. (Plus a DT one that I can't share yet). So not bad going.

Here's my name tag for Scrap-a-mia.

I've just bought some fab new chunky tubing to make the chain. I think I'll get some more to make bracelets too. It's really sturdy so I won't have to worry about it while I'm working away at the craft weekend. I've even hung a co-ordinating Sharpie on there so I'll always have a pen to hand.

I've used VersaMagic oasis green and ocean depths chalk inks and a bit of glimmer mist. For the black stamping I used VersaFine with stamps from Technique Tuesday and Making Memories. The satin varnish over the top is Ronseal, as I didn't want the high gloss finishes of the crafting versions. To finish I sprinkled a tiny bit of Doodlebug tangerine sugar coating.

For the 1st day in ages the weather is looking a bit overcast which doesn't bode well for the Scout and Guide St George's day events today. Fingers crossed.

Friday, April 23

A couple of before projects today that I want to get finished over the weekend.

The 1st is a frame that I bought with the picture very damaged so it was cheap, cheap, cheap.

I've seen 2 mirrors decorated and I aim to create something similar. One was at Jane's quite a while ago and the other was only this week at Andrea's which reminded me that I still haven't done mine. I'm hoping that blogging the before pictures will get me motivated.

Thursday, April 22

I've used the sketch for Creative Inspirations challenge #57 and my lonely lollipop Tilda that was facing the wrong way has finally found a home. I've made her into a birthday card for the theme at A Spoon Full Of Sugar as they celebrate challenge #100.

I've used K&Co Berry Sweet papers and the strawberry sticker is from that range too. Even managed to find some gloss to add to her lolly.

Don't say anything out loud but........ our computer is working normally again and the mystery connection problem has disappeared. This means I was able to visit lots of workdesks yesterday and keep up with all the lovely comments that were left for me about my messy desk.

I got quite excited when some of the comments yesterday mentioned a sighting of chocolate. I rushed up to have a look, could it be possible that in all that mess I had missed some edible goodies? No, unless you count the worming tablets and even I'm not that desperate. The only thing I can think of that was pretending to be choc was my new shoes. The Butterfly Twists.

They fold up tiny to fit in your craft bag for a spare pair of comfy shoes on the go, got them cheap on Ebay not from those expensive magazine adverts. I might have to dismantle that box though to see if it will make a good template.

Oh and re the miniature tool bag. I have got a larger one, it just ended up full of tools I don't use so now I don't lug around a load of stuff, just the essentials.

Wednesday, April 21

Is there a prize for the messiest desk? If so, I think this has to be a contender.

There's a few non-craft items on there slipping towards the floor. A packet of dog worming tablets and some new Butterfly Twist shoes that I thought would be good to chuck in my bag when I head for Scrap-a-mia. The shoes that is not the tablets, they need chucking in the dog. The large brown shapes on a sheet are fake leather stickers and were a 25p bargain bin purchase. I plan to combine them with my Sugar Nellie cowgirl stamp.........one day.

Swung across slightly to the bedside table.

Yes that is my bedside table. It's made from a custom set of Artbin drawers, but they don't stay very successfully on the runners. It's where my mini bag of craft tools stands ready and waiting.

Anyone for a biscuit?

He's happy with it, anyway. It was nice to catch him smiling yesterday as he has a bad case of the terrible two's. Everything has to be done his way and nothing is ever right. I was screamed at and walloped all day.

Just below the pushchair wheels was this sweet little flower.

A bit of a contrast to the monster lurking above scoffing biscuits.

Don't forget to pop over to Julia's for a nosey at other people's desks.

Tuesday, April 20

The last couple of days I haven't felt much like crafting, or doing anything for that matter. In fact on Monday night I was in bed by 9pm with a pounding headache feeling quite sick.This evening I am feeling much better and I can feel the crafty bug returning. The main reason for the crafty feeling is that my information pack for Scrap-a-mia arrived today. I have bitten the bullet and booked the hotel. I was holding out for a cheaper rate nearer the time, but it just left me with another thing on the to do list and the potential to forget altogether! Leaving SMO totally in charge at home with all 3 children and me leaving my littlest for the first time will give me more than enough to worry about.I've put a little counter thingy on the side bar which, when it works, says there are 31 days to go, yippee. Now I am Billy Nomates on this, going on my own and the only people I know there are Claire and Margaret from Creative Moments (the organisers). So if you is going let me know and I can look out for you there.

The information pack has lots of lists of things to bring and a pre-meet challenge, but I'm wondering if there's time for me to get some ATCs made. There's no mention of a swap but I think it would be good to have a few to hand for swaps and to give people my blog details so we can keep in touch.What do you think?

Sunday, April 18

It's been a lovely weekend so far and today looks just as nice out. It's dancing exams/medals for us all afternoon, 4 in total, so I will report back on those tomorrow. In the meantime a couple of projects.

Green and yellow, green and yellow,

Oh mother come quick,

I'm gonna be sick,

And I wanna lay down and die.

Brings back memories of Guide camp. I haven't totally taken leave of my senses, 'Green and Yellow plus 1 other' is challenge #75 at Whiff of Joy. I chose to add lilac to mine purely because a pile of things were lying in close proximity and I thought they looked OK.

I've incorporated a Cuttlebug embossed background and also embossed his nose for this months Winter Wonderland challenge. Quixotic Challenge #21 is Heavy Metal which I've incorporated with the snowflake eyelets. Lastly, this month's Crafty Calendar challenge is to make a April Fools joke card and I think a snowman sat in hot chocolate counts as that.

Thursday, April 15

Thanks for all the lovely comments yesterday. As always I am slowly making my way around to visit everyone and leaving comments where pooter permits.The craft drawers have been filled a little further as some sale Magnolia stamps arrived today. I have to confess that I didn't paint them, they were found that way in a charity shop, hence the need to rub them back a bit before stamping on them. Good news is that there were 2 sets for sale and my mum has the other set, so not far to look when I have filled them and need more, mwahaha.

Lollipop Tilda is a little sad. Stamped and coloured her last night, perfect for my project. Only to discover that she is sat facing the wrong way and won't fit, what a fool I am! She is still lovely but I now have my eye on 2 more that are a better match, hehe. No project to share though, it sits with it's 2 halves incomplete :(

Wednesday, April 14

Good morning everyone, it has definitely started out a good day for me! Unlike last week breaking everything it's all happy stuff for me today.

First off I've won last week's challenge at High Hopes with my sea life bookmark, and they put a picture of the winning entry on the High Hopes blog which I was very excited to discover this morning.

On to WOYWW, this is my stamping workdesk (aka one third of my kitchen work surfaces) this morning with a new addition.

I've had the drawers under the computer desk for months if not years waiting to be sanded back a bit and decorated. Then when I was looking for somewhere to keep my stamp collections I remembered them. I think they may need a more permanent home than on the edge of the worktop, maybe?

Here's a close-up with strategically placed elements!

The Magnolia drawer open to reveal my new stamp Tilda with lollipop. I have a special mission for her which I am itching to get started on. Then on the top is the another new stamp for my collection - Helz Cuppleditch's Pepper & Friends 'In the garden'. I've just stamped it hoping to get some spring card challenges completed today.

As if that wasn't all just happy with bunnies on top a little pack of goodies arrived from CardMaking and Papercraft magazine as a reward for having my card published in their gallery. It's a lovely set of Cute Companion stamps which you can build into all manner of cake designs.

I think I might have a mission for these too!

I've managed to get the family pictures updated in the sidebar. I had to take a shot of the Dinky Diva especially for the job. We were on our way home from a Easter craft morning and she stopped for a mini photo shoot. Make that microscopic photo shoot, I was allowed to take all of 2 photos! This is the the one that I didn't use for her sidebar pic.

Monday, April 12

Instead of blogging this weekend I attempted to fit the new bits I'd been sent to get the computer running smoothly. What a waste of time that was. I couldn't get it to work at all and then had to switch everything back again.

So I have a delayed Whiff of the Weekend again this week.

All of the papers are My Minds Eye Bohemia, as is the 'Princess' die cut.

I've glittered the underskirt of the WOJ image but I am thinking I might need to add a bit of glitter around the edges as well - too much white.

Challenges :

Whiff Of Joy #74 - sketch. Did you see the wonderful stall Katharina had at the Big Stamp and Scrapbook Show at the weekend? I only saw photos of it on her blog, I think I would have spent up big if I had actually been there!

I have a funny story to tell from the weekend. The Dinky Diva and Small-N-Grubby were talking about relatives and the family tree. They were getting a little confused by those Aunties and Uncles every family has that aren't actually members of the family, more like old school friends and neighbours.

Friday, April 9

Meant to get back on here yesterday and blog a card, but never got here. We had glorious weather, went out and stayed out. It looks like another lovely day today, so I better get my blogging done and get going, the garden beckons. The Dinky Diva isn't up yet, so I have a bit of time!

Also didn't get to visit all the peeps who left me comments over the last few days. I'll get around those Wednesday workdesk a few at a time.

Wednesday, April 7

Literally moments after this photo was taken the whole lot slid gracefully onto the floor with a horrendous smash. The front lip of my new file box sheared off but other than that it was intact.

WOYWW or not I was going to have to tidy! The situation wasn't helped by a large pile of empty boxes waiting to be turned into junk modelling in the Easter holidays. Here's the tidy version.

Still loads of empty cardboard boxes but they will be gone by the end of the holidays.

I managed to smash my pudding bowl yesterday too. Even more of a tragedy as I hadn't had chance to eat my pud first! Do these things come in 3's? What am I going to break next?

I managed to make something else when I was crafting on Monday night. This time for the High Hopes challenge #70 - anything but a card. I haven't entered one of their challenges before but I have some of their stamps, so why not? Here's my bookmark.

Sponged on 2 shades of VersaMagic ink to make the backgrouond. I made the shell decoration by placing accent beads in an old seashell chocolate box and then pouring in PVA glue. It took a while to set but I now have a little seashell collection to play with.

The 3d foam showed through the dried glue so I lined the shell with paper stuck on with glitter glue for an extra sheen.

Tuesday, April 6

Here's a card I made yesterday with my bit of spare bank holiday crafting time.

I've water coloured the WOJ image and given it a bit of sparkle with some glitter on the wings.

Couldn't resist the little tag in the corner from Craft Obsessions. They are blank unlike others I have seen so very versatile and a strip of 12 was 95p. The chipboard buttons are Crate Paper and were left over from one of my Creative Moments kits.

Now on to pictures from the weekend. Lots as I couldn't choose which to share.

The 2 older children stayed over night at their grandparents on Saturday and then we went out to meet them on Sunday. Having consumed a lot of curry and wine on the Saturday evening I needed some fresh air and we arranged to meet SMO's Godchildren at the cricket pitch.

Branston with a stolen princess ball

Branston being swiftly removed from a very tall slide

Small-N-Grubby caught in the act!

At the bottom of the slide - great view across the pitch, the goal posts should be coming down soon

Branston cheers up about the slide once he gets a turn on the very squeaky swing

The adventure park was still shut for the winter but it was a lovely sunny afternoon and so that didn't really matter.

On Monday the Dinky Diva unexpectedly got an invite to a friends house so we took the boys to the nearby play area with bikes, scooters, cricket set etc.

Here's Branston on his trike

And Small-N-Grubby posing

I think I might have to replace the photos on my sidebar with some of these as you can see how outdated they are.